In 2010, politics in Missouri and the nation took a dramatic turn for the worse. Historically, state representative and state senate races were centered around issues that pertained to the office. But in 2010 the Missouri Republican party adopted the same talking points and strategy as used in the national office races. Democratic Missourians seeking office were suddenly featured on smear mails from their opponents as being "Nancy Pelosi liberals" and "President Obama clones." The strategy was for state Republicans to benefit from the national campaigns. But the result was to further divide Missourians and create an election environment that was devoid of informing voters about the real issues facing Missouri citizens. The strategy filled the Missouri House and Senate with Republican candidates promising to create jobs and oppose the "socialist agenda." Along the road to getting themselves elected, they adopted the over the top extreme agenda of their Washington sponsors. Two years later the now huge Republican majority in Missouri has been credited with the least productive sessions in our states history. At a time of widespread suffering that needed real attention, no serious jobs programs were created and the failed program they did create they lied about. Women's rights were trampled. They entertained reversing child labor laws. The only discussion of health care was how to keep people from getting it.
The Republican majority in Missouri is now so large that they are fighting among themselves. Not over anything that will benefit people, but over which extreme agenda should be turned into law. They trampled the will of the voters by reversing a ballot referendum to make the minimum wage flexible with the cost of living. They froze the minimum wage at its outdated level while gas prices and the cost of getting by shot through the roof. It is the stuff that revolts are born from. But if you ask most people on the street what happened since 2012, they will talk about the national political scene. Missouri, for now, has a government that isn't functioning and isn't paying any price for their incompetence or lack of attention to the needs of citizens.
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were people and should be able to anonymously donate as much money as they wanted to political campaigns. And they are. In the current political environment where people are more accustomed to getting their information from smear ads than news stories, it was a perfect fit for the Republican party to buy more seats and do the will of huge out of state PACs bent on giving corporations more money at peoples expense. Largely unaccountable for their failings, it allows Republicans to go on pointing the finger to Washington and avoid any backlash for their failure to serve the needs of the state. These corporations plan on buying more offices to further their agenda at the expense of people and the Missouri Republican party is happy to go on doing nothing for you to return the favor.
There are now so many Republicans in the Missouri House that they can pass bills without a single Democrat voting with them. They can override the Governor's veto to destroy any checks or balances designed to protect our democracy from abuse. We are truly a state that is controlled by one party who owes the largest corporations their souls. How's that working out for us?
There is a solution. It is for the many groups of citizens who are being neglected and attacked to unite and support each other in defending their rights. Women under attack need to support unions. Unions under attack need the support of non-union under payed workers. The gay and lesbian community needs to support the voters whose rights are under attack and the working poor need to start recognizing and supporting their right to justice. Teachers need to support voting rights and voters whose rights are threatened need to support education. We can do this. Our elections are not determined by huge corporate ad campaigns. The day after the election they are still the result of how we voted.
Kevin Morgan is a Democratic candidate for the Missouri House in the 38th District.
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